It's back-to-reality day for most of us ...
Having grown up Catholic (I'm still in recovery), nothing works better than leftover Catholic guilt to get me to do something I'm whinge-ing about. The supreme irony about my former Catholicism is...
In the book of Exodus in the King James Version of the Bible, Moses first called himself a “stranger in a strange land.” From then on up through Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel of the same phrase, the “stranger in a strange land”-genre has been...
Confession: I got to hang out twice with Srikanth – otherwise known as "Chicu" – Reddy two days in a row last weekend, first for the Asian American Literary Review's "8: A Symposium," and then for an Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival literary panel. Even though my...
"Turkmenistan! It was a strange place," begins Jesse Lonergan's graphic travelogue based on his own experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the central Asian former republic of the Soviet Union. Lonergan's alter-ego is "Joe" – as in average Joe Schmoe? – a bewildered American...
Marco Polo sure got around in his time, way back in the 13th century! And what a great way to show our instant-access, Web-addicted kids just how incredible the Polo family's adventures were – for any generation! The latest in Chronicle Books' (that great indie San...
With unusual patience, I saved this third (for me) Alain de Botton book to read on a flight to London, where I have lived twice before (B.C. as in Before...
For kids in the remotest areas across the world, there is nothing like a library visit that comes to you any way it can: via camel, solar-powered truck,...
A self-absorbed Chinese American arts patron, Bibi Chen, is murdered just before she was to lead a group of 12 friends through Burma. Even though she’s dead, she goes along...
From one of my favorite writers comes a highly readable memoir of a seed-collecting trek through eastern Nepal with three botanist friends. As always, Kincaid is blunt, honest, and highly observant, never overlooking her...
Thirteen leftover travelers from a 323-passenger cancelled flight to Tokyo are left stranded overnight at the airport. They pass the time by each sharing a story – haunting, surprising, delicious, tales that span time...
Photographer Yoshio Komatsu captures the homes of 10 families in 10 countries, including Mongolia, Indonesia, Tunisia, and Bolivia. The photos are paired together with an illustrated glimpse of the everyday lives inhabited within.
Review: <a...
Novelist and essayist (and frequent New York Review of Books contributor) Mishra adds to what seems to be a growing hybrid genre of memoir infused with history, philosophy, and politics. What begins...
If you understand the word “otaku” (and if you don’t, you’ll have to read this to find out), then this book’s for you: the first insider’s guide in English to...
The collected private writings of film and cultural historian Donald Richie, who is perhaps best known as Japan’s pre-eminent 20th-century American expat. Included in the multiple pages devoted to his almost-six-decade love affair with...
If you don’t feel like dealing with planes, trains, and automobiles this summer, grab a lawn chair and this book instead. Head to far-flung areas around the globe and experience the surreal...
A superbly detailed, wordless journey through Spain with the blue-capped guide on horseback from the award-winning creator of Anno's Journey and Anno's U.S.A.
Review: "New and Notable Books," AsianWeek, February 27, 2004
Readers:...
When have you ever had an alphabet book that used “xenophobia” for the letter X? “… you’ll need to leave one X at home, and that’s for ‘xenophobia,’” it reads....
An anthology of works from Mark Twain to Langston Hughes, from Saul Bellow to David Sedaris that captures America’s love affair with the legendary city, which, according to M.F.K. Fisher, “should only...
Stunningly rendered, intimate look at today’s Vietnam, its country, its people, its beliefs, its hopes – a Vietnam no longer associated with war.
Review: "New and Notable Books," AsianWeek, May 30, 2009
Readers: Adult
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